1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for biochemical analysis, and in more detail, it relates to an apparatus for biochemical analysis in which a sample of blood, serum or the like is dispensed, or dropped, into a measuring element impregnated with a reaction reagent and is made to react with the reagent under the prescribed condition of temperature, and the process or the result of the reaction, e.g. a change in the density of color caused by the reaction, is measured so as to analyze chemically the presence or absence of a specified component in said liquid reagent or the content of the component therein, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional apparatuses of this kind are constructed in such a manner that a disk in the circumferential edge part of which fitting grooves for measuring elements are provided at equal intervals is so provided that it can be rotated intermittently, and a unit for dropping a solution to be analyzed and a photometric unit are provided respectively at positions at which said disk is stopped. Solutions to be analyzed, which are dropped from the dropping unit, are conveyed to the photometric unit in sequence as they each pass a time of reaction with the reagent contained in the measuring element, so as to be subjected to photometry. In this construction, the time of stoppage of the disk is determined constantly according to the dropping operation from the sample dropping unit and the speed of photometry in the photometric unit, and the item of each measuring element fitted in the element fitting groove provided in the circumferential edge part of the disk can not be discriminated from one another. Therefore there are problems that the item of the measuring elements employed in one operation must be identical, and that the measuring samples taken from the same person can not be measured simultaneously by an end point method and a rate method determined according to an item of analysis.
Thus there have been apparatuses in which routes for conveying measuring elements are provided by the number of the items of analysis, or a photometric unit branching from a conveyance route is provided for exclusive use for each item of analysis, or a plurality of apparatuses for analysis to each of which a single measuring method is applied are provided together for enabling simultaneous measurement. The former two apparatuses involve a complicated, large-sized and expensive structure as a whole, necessitate high technical skill and are troublesome in maintenance, while the latter one requires a large space for its installation and, moreover, the operation of each unit thereof is complicated.